Category: Nut crops

Did you ever pass an orchard with branches bursting with flowers and wonder how the trees “know” when to blossom or bear fruit all at the same time? Or perhaps you’ve walked through the woods, crunching loads of acorns underfoot one year but almost none the next year. Scientists from the University of California, Davis,…

Patrick Brown, professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, sees a future that holds a better way of growing almonds, one that cuts down on dust in the air, reduces the risk of navel orangeworm and hull rot, and gives growers many more opportunities to improve soil and tree health. “We’ve approached this like…

Louise Ferguson, UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and UC ANR, received the 2017 Outstanding Extension Educator Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS). Ferguson is a UC Cooperative Extension Specialist and faculty member, starting in the Department of Pomology in 1984, then joining the Department of Plant Sciences when pomology merged into…

UC Davis professors Ken Shackel and Helen Dahlke are working with California almond grower Nick Blom to replenish underground aquifers. Ken Shackel is in the Department of Plant Sciences; Helen Dahlke is in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. See the full article by Kat Kerlin, along with a video that explains the…

University of California, Davis December 9, 2015 by Ann Filmer Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have for the first time sequenced the genome of a commercial walnut variety. The information should accelerate the rate of breeding and variety improvement in walnuts and help breeders select for desired traits such as insect and disease…

by Pamela Kan-Rice August 10, 2015 re-posted from UC ANR Green Blog Can orchards get credit for storing carbon? A webinar discussing greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and more is now online. Sonja Brodt, academic coordinator in the UC ANR Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, and Elias Marvinney, a graduate student in the UC…